Cleantech opportunities return after dismal year

Article by Gerard Wynn

Green energy opportunities are emerging after dismal returns this year, led by a buoyant solar industry and government renewable energy targets, but more support was needed to convince the world's biggest investors.

Optimism was returning to the renewable energy investment market, blocked after project finance froze in the global financial crisis, executives told the Reuters Climate and Alternative Energy Summit this week.

"Really we've kind of bottlenecked at the funding or financing stage of the project development," said Jim Davis, president of Chevron Energy Solutions, which develops cleantech projects for public-sector customers, and especially solar.

Now, banks were "becoming a little bit easier to deal with again, and they are moving a little bit faster. I think that's going to just continue," he said.

In the vacuum without a post-2012 global climate deal, as U.N. talks falter, national and regional targets and subsidies were driving investment.

The European Union, for example, has a binding target to get a fifth of the bloc's energy from renewable sources by 2020 compared with about 10 percent now.

"It's a massive opportunity," said Stephen Lilley, head of renewable energy infrastructure at Climate Change Capital, which has about 1 billion pounds under management and is targeting the European renewables market.

To read the full article visit the Reuters website.

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Cleantech opportunities return after dismal year

Green energy opportunities are emerging after dismal returns this year, led by a buoyant solar industry and government renewable energy targets, but more support was needed to convince the world's biggest investors.